30 April 2024  –  Peter Ash

It is with much sadness that we have to announce the sudden death of Peter Ash. He has been a G Scale Society member for many years and since 2019 has served as treasurer to the NW Group, taking over at short notice when the previous treasurer, Don McGeachin, was taken ill. He was an active member of the committee, always able to offer sensible advice on any issues which arose, and was the cheery face to welcome existing and new members to the Group’s monthly meetings in Altrincham. He was also involved with the group’s exhibition layout, both with the maintenance of it and the exhibiting of it at various locations in the NW.

Outside G Scale, Peter was a National Trust volunteer at Quarry Bank Mill and could regularly be seen explaining the workings of the stationary steam engine to visitors. He also volunteered at the Churnet Valley Railway working on trackside maintenance. He had a large collection of 00 scale models, and generally it could be said that if steam engines were involved in something, Peter was interested in it.

Peter will be sadly missed by all NW group members.

 

1 August 2021

Good news at last after 16 months of closure!  The St Albans Church Hall in Altrincham is reopening for meetings and so we will resume our schedule of meetings with the September meet on Saturday 18th September and subsequent 3rd Saturdays in the month for the rest of 2021, the dates being 16th October; 20th October and the Christmas meet on 18th December.
 
With regard to Covid-19, obviously we will be running any meetings in compliance with whatever regulations are current at the time.  However, the situation is changing rapidly and it is impossible to predict exactly what restrictions, if any, will be in force by then.  Most probably it will mean that we will be more stringent about insisting on signing in, but as we do that anyway for insurance purposes (and demand your entrance fee!), it is not a real burden.  There is a wide a range of opinion about Covid from the ‘forget it and get on with life’ school to those wishing or needing to continue to take care.  Please respect the opinions and behaviour of others, we are meeting to run trains and have a good time, not argue about medical politics!
 
This is good news, it will be great to get together again, I and the whole NW Area committee hope you will feel able to start meeting with us again.  See you on 18th September at St Albans Hall.
 
Richard Waller
NW Area Group Leader

 

15 April 2020

It is with much sadness that we have to report the death of our President Ken Povey on Saturday 11th April. Ken was a founder member of the North West Area Group, and indeed the Society being member number 27, and was the group leader for many years before becoming President. A tribute to Ken can be found here. A short video of Ken’d garden railway can be found on the Gallery page.

 

 

 

 

2 November 2019

The funeral of our late Treasurer Don McGeachin, pictured left, has been arranged for 3pm on Wednesday 20th November at Dukinfield Crematorium, Hall Green Road, Dukinfield SK16 4EP. A tribute page has been set up for Don at https://donald-mcgeachin.muchloved.com/

 

 

22 June 2019

The first Open Day of the summer was held at Andrew Jolley’s in Poulton-le-Fylde in warm sunshine with around 15 people attending. A good variety of trains were run throughout the afternoon on his very neat and well laid out railway. A big thank you to Andrew for his usual hospitality of endless cups of tea/coffee and cakes and biscuits. A selection of photos from the event can be found on the Gallery page or by clicking here.

15 June 2019

A message was received today to say that Don McGeachin, the group’s treasurer, was found dead at home around the end of May. Don had been ill for some time and had been in and out of hospital receiving dialysis treatment. He was a long standing  member of the group and as treasurer could always be found on the door at the meetings in Altrincham collecting the money. He had a keen interest in model railways and was also a member of the Manchester Model Railway Society. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him and our condolences go out to his family.